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Dr. Barry SearsFlaxseed oil contains short-chain Omega-3 fatty acids and the human body can convert these short-chain Omega-3 fatty acids with great difficulty into much lower levels of longer-chain Omega-3 fatty acids. The conversion rate is between one and five percent. It is only the long-chain Omega-3 fats that have the health benefits.

This is not to say that flaxseed oil is bad. It is just not very good compared to fish oil because of the very inefficient conversion of the fats found in flaxseed oil to the long-chain Omega-3 fats
found in fish oil.
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Diana asks:
How much fish oil do you recommend per day? Is it better to do capsule form or liquid.

Dr. Barry Sears
I would recommend that 2 1/2 grams of Omega-3 fats per day is a good maintenance level.

If you want optimal cardiovascular health, you will need about 5 grams per day. If you want to treat inflammatory pain, you'll need nearly 10 grams per day.

These are all obviously much higher dosages than Americans are consuming. At the same time, we also have to be controlling the levels of insulin to maximize the impact of the fish oil.
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Moderator
Can you elaborate on the "other" research that's out there on fish oil?

Dr. Barry Sears
Fish oil research for years has confirmed the importance of Omega-3 fats in the prevention and treatment of heart disease. However, when we get into inflammatory conditions and neurological conditions, the amounts required become far greater.

In terms of heart disease, we know that one gram a day of pharmaceutical grade Omega-3 fatty acids reduces sudden death by nearly 50 percent.

We also know that 10 grams a day of long-chain Omega-3 fatty acids has a dramatic effect in the treatment of bipolar depression. And we know that 18 grams a day of pharmaceutical grade Omega-3 fats can reduce the wasting condition in cancer patients.

To put these levels in perspective, a tablespoon of cod liver oil would provide about 2 1/2 grams a day of Omega-3 fats and current intake of these fats by Americans is only 125 milligrams per day.
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I would think that taking cod liver oil every day that you may run into a problem with Vit A and D overconsumption. If you take Flax your body can take the LNA and make EPA/DHA. It is estimated that less than 2% of the population can make this conversion. EPA/DHA can NOT convert to LNA. Plus LNA has other benefits that EPA/DHA don't give. To me, Flax oil is best!

Flaxseed oil contains short-chain Omega-3 fatty acids and the human body can convert these short-chain Omega-3 fatty acids with great difficulty into much lower levels of longer-chain Omega-3 fatty acids. The conversion rate is between one and five percent. It is only the long-chain Omega-3 fats that have the health benefits.

That is why I said to me, it is the best. I do my own research and base my conclusions off that. Rather than choose just one opinion in the field I decided to look at multiple opinions. I would just watch the amount of Vit. A you take in as Cod oil has quite a bit of it in there.

Some good info can be found at brinkzone.com if you are interested in where I found some of my info.

Sport, truth, like art, is in the eye of the beholder. You believe what you choose and I'll believe what I know.
Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice;
it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.

I think the issues because one of convience. You can take 6 pills of fish oils a day or just a tablespoon of flax. I believe the other benefits that LNA gives you should swing you towards flax when making a decision.

Originally posted by cockdezl If you go to misc.fitness.weights, they may still have the debates archived on this subject. Will Brink and Lyle McDonald pretty much countered Sears' argument concerning this topic.

Our current diets are excruciatingly high in n-6 to begin with (current ratio of n6:n3 in in the range of 11=12:1 while research suggests we evolved on a 4:1 or 1:1 ratio). You'd have to take a true metric assload of N-3 to balance that out or cause problems.

On top of that, our bodyfat contains a store of n-6 fatty acids that is roughly equivalent to your past year's consumption.

Point being you could eat nothing but n-3 for a year (which would be nearly impossible in the first place unless your only fat intake came from fish oil caps or something) and not come up with an n-6 deficiency because your body could mobilize it from your fat stores.

So, yeah, Udo may have a point if you're looking at very long-term severely unbalanced fat intakes. But unless n-3 fatty acids made up your sole fat intake, I doubt an n-6 deficiency is going to be an issue under most circumstances. Not that a balanced oil isn't a bad thing but making a huge issue out of an n-6 deficiency is a bit off the mark.

On that note, a good group to look at would be the Inuit who have an estimated n6:n3 ratio of 1:40 because of their high intake of fatty fish, at least they did historically. If anyone is at risk for an n-6 deficiency, and realize that we only need a tiny amount per day to prevent a true deficiency anyhow, it'd be them. Dunno if that research has ever (or will ever) been done.

One thing to keep in mind also when deciding btwn Flax and Fish is that both caffeine and alcohol make the conversion to EPA/DHA even less efficient. If you like your morning coffee or a few beers with the boys at night choose fish oil.

Keep in mind that Udo's Choice, has always been a mix of flax and a high omega-6 oil, so Udo has changed his tune, so he is far from an infallible authority on the subject.

Also, supplementing omega-6's is idiotic, unless maybe you get all of your food from MRP's, as they are ABUNDANT, and their effects on body composition are worse than saturated fats in many studies, so there is another strike.

That aside, most, if not pretty much all, of the omega-3 research DOES use fish oils, not flax/linolenic acid.